Bump In The Night
by RegretfulDragon
Summary: Old mares' tales. That's all they were supposed to be, but in the Everfree Forest live creatures that should only exist in nightmares. Warning: if gore freaks you out, I wouldn't recommend reading this. Rated M for safety.


A/N: I've been on a unwilling hiatus for college and such, but it's summer now, and I feel like writing and posting again. Now this story is something I did back in September. It came about after reading that dreadful _Cupcakes_ story and discussing it with some one else. Both of our problem's with it came from the excessive amount of gore for the sake of gore and no real plot that we could see. One thing led to another, and I decided to try my hand at a horror with this fandom.

This was fun and challenging for me as I never thought I'd write for MLP:FiM. It's a cute show to watch, but it wasn't the sort of thing I pictured myself writing. However, it's always good to step outside of one's comfort zone and see what they can do with something they've never done. At least that's my take on it.

Yes, it's a little gory and on the detailed side, but so far from the people I've showed it to, they enjoyed it so why not. Enjoy if you're interested. I may do more, but I don't know. Lot of projects I need to catch up on.

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"_HA_! That Applejack doesn't know what she's gotten herself into. I'm gonna win this bet and prove to her that I'm the bravest pony in Ponyville!" The incessant, monologus gloating was being spoken to no one in particular, the sky-blue pegasus hovering just above the ground as she made her way through the Everfree Forest. The sun-kissed orange mare had dared her to go to the scariest place she could think of and stay there for a full hour.

For Rainbow Dash, nothing was as scary to her as the Everfree Forest. She'd heard enough tales about it to know that it was not somewhere to go just for fun and definitely not the sort of place to settle a bet, but once she picked it, she refused to back down. Even Applejack had been ready to go back on their bet once she heard where she was planning to go, but Rainbow Dash, too prideful for her own good, took that as the opportunity to call her a chicken and prance around on her rear legs while the other two were tucked into her body, wings flapping. Applejack, prideful herself, immediately dared her to go.

Now, after fifteen or so minutes of trotting and coming across nothing but a few wild animals, Rainbow Dash was convinced she had nothing to be worried about and launched into another one of her self-indulgent 'brag-fests' despite having no one around to brag to.

"All those stories are nothing but bogus tales for foals to keep them out of here, but this is nothing for Ponyville, no...Equestria's bravest, fastest, most awesome flyer in all of history!"

_CR-ACK!_

"AAAAH!" The sudden noise that seemed to reverberate through the trees around her had the pony dropping right to the ground, cowering under an old and rotted root, all of her boasting and so-called bravery of the minute before somewhere far, far behind her now. "What was that? What was _THAT_?"

Dark magenta eyes darted back and forth, scanning the trees and the bushes for anything that might jump out and attack. Nearly fifteen minutes went by before Rainbow Dash dared to venture out from under the root she was taking shelter under, her ears folded flat against her skull. The pegasus took a few tentative steps forward back out into the open, her multi-colored tail swishing with nervousness.

So close to declaring the sound as a broken branch that had finally fallen off the tree, Rainbow Dash nearly jumped out of her skin to the see the bushes in front of her rustle once...twice. Some pony or something was there...

"Wh-who's there? Come on out. I'm not afraid of you!" Silence met her. Dead silence. Puffing out her chest, Rainbow Dash snorted and struck the ground with her hoof, fear turning into annoyance, body tensing as she collected her wits together again to face whatever was daring to challenge her. Or so she thought... "I'm giving you one last chance! Come on out, and I'll go easy on ya! You're messing with Equestria's best!"

More silence followed her challenge to unknown... whatever it was. Snorting again with her lips drawn back to bare her teeth, Rainbow Dash got ready to charge through the bushes and meet them head-on when something-it looked like a stick, long and thin- came flying from the behind the bushes, traveling up in an arch. She watched it go as high as five or ten feet from her height before coming down for a landing, the point lodging into the ground.

Squinting her eyes, Rainbow Dash tried to make out what was in front of her, the darkness of the Everfree Forest making it difficult to tell if the object in front of was actually just a stick or some kind of weapon. Bending her head down, she got her snout within inches of the object and took a whiff.

"Yuck!" The pegasus drew back with a disgusted snort, holding one hoof to her snout as if it would keep the decaying smell out of her nostrils. "What is that?" Still curious and wanting to know what she was up against, if anything, Rainbow Dash brought her hoof down and poked it. Whatever it was, it was hard, slimy, and covered in... teeth marks?

She pulled her hoof away only to find that some of the slimy substance had come off on it, bringing it close to her face to get a good look at it. It was a red in color with a sinew-like texture. Rainbow Dash considered wiping it off on the ground when she noticed liquid... leaking from the slime. She again dared to take another sniff and this time, through the disgusting, rotted smell, she picked up the faint scent of copper.

It dawned on her then that the slime she was holding in her hoof was a chuck of muscle and the stick... was the radius bone of a pony's front leg.

"Aaaah!" Quickly, she struck her hoof against the ground to get rid of the muscle though the blood smeared on her hoof. Common sense and instinct both told her to run for it, fly up through the trees and make her way back to Ponyville, forget this bet and forget this ever happened.

However... some pony was in trouble, if they weren't already dead, and she had to help, being the only pony that she knew of within a two-mile radius. Taking a breath to steel her nerves, Rainbow Dash rushed through the bushes, flaring her wings out to make herself appear larger.

"Alright! Step away from the pony and nobody...gets...h-hurt..." Her threat died in her throat as did her voice, a silent gasp of horror being the best she could manage at the sight she found waiting for her. Suddenly, all the old mares' tales of the Everfree Forest being filled with flesh-eating monsters and blood-thirsty ghouls were no longer just stories. They were real. They were as real as anything she'd ever encountered in her short life and staring at the grisly scene had her pushing back bile in her throat.

The unfortunate pony was not one she knew, probably a traveler who'd taken a wrong turn and didn't know what he was getting into, but it was easy to see... he was a fresh kill. Blood was still oozing from his wounds, bites and gashes, and pouring from the gaping hole in his stomach. From her viewpoint, she could tell he still had at least half of his organs though that wouldn't be for much longer. On the ground beside the murdered stallion was the rest of his leg, bone and hoof all that remained save for a few chunks of muscle that refused to come loose from the bone.

Rainbow Dash found her voice again and whinnied in horror, feeling the blood drain from her face and turning the normal sky blue into a pastel blue. So far, the other being in the clearing hadn't noticed her and she thanked the heavens above that it hadn't. She didn't think it deserved the title of 'pony' even though it certainly looked like one. It was a sickly shade of green though one could hardly tell with the blood staining its pelt from snout to hoof, perfectly complementing the short blood-red mane and tail of the beast.

Its snout was buried in the dead pony's abdominal cavity, mouth moving in the unmistakable manner of chewing, tearing away chunks of flesh with wet rips that the blue pegasus knew would haunt her dreams for the rest of her life. It still hadn't noticed her and given that it was preoccupied with it's meal, it probably wouldn't. Rainbow Dash wasn't going to take her chances with the thing.

Flaring her wings, she leaped up into the air, flapping the feathery appendages as hard as she could to put as much distance between her and the nightmarish scene. Applejack could keep the money. She would never return to the Everfree Forest for as long as she lived.

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FYI: The zombie pony does have a name cause he is from my group of Halloween horror ponies including Calundria (vampiress), Grezelda (Witch), Bane (werewolf), Stitches (frankenstein mare), Tien (ghost), and Tut (mummy). The zombie pony is 'Romero'. Ten points to Ravenclaw if you get that reference.


End file.
